Nobel-winner urges end to death by stoning for all Iranians

(BRUSSELS) - Nobel peace-winner Shirin Ebadi called on world leaders Thursday to fight to end the practice of death by stoning in Iran, a fate she said was faced by "several" besides Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani.

In Brussels to meet EU officials, Ebadi said she had little faith that Tehran would spare Mohammadi-Ashtiani despite a suspension of her death by lapidation sentence last July.

"I have no trust in what the government says," she said at a news conference.

"But I say that apart from Sakineh there are several others awaiting death by stoning. Let us save them all."

Ebadi, who has not returned to Iran since leaving for a seminar abroad just days before the disputed June 2009 re-election, said the human rights situation had deteriorated in the country, as had poverty.

More than 800 political prisoners remained in jail while more than 4,000 had been released, but many only after posting cripplingly heavy bail.

Lawyer Ebadi said she and other Iranian human rights activists were working to end not only execution by stoning and torture, but also to overturn laws that currently hit children the hardest.

The age of criminal responsibility was nine for girls and 15 for boys, she said. "That means that if a 10-year-old girl perpetrates a crime she is sentenced in the same way as a 40-year-old man. That is why Iran has the highest number of juvenile executions in the world."

According to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), which hosted the news conference, since 1999 through March 2009, at least 42 executions of juvenile offenders have been recorded in Iran.

Ebadi said she had spoken Thursday to EU chief diplomat Catherine Ashton about human rights abuse in Iran, including this week's arrest of prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoodeh on security charges, who is being held in solitary confinement, according to her lawyer.

"I urged Mrs Ashton that when she takes part in any negotiations, including the nuclear issue, to highlight the issue of human rights."

Asked if she was confident the EU foreign policy chief would actively defend rights issues, she said: "We have to wait and see what she does in the future."